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AOC, Experts Clap Back at Mayor Adams' Comment About Due Process for Migrants
"We afford due process to all human beings who are within our borders," said Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.
Nicolae Butler & Pablo Manríquez
December 05, 2024
(pablo/canva)
WASHINGTON — New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that he believes migrants should not be entitled to the same constitutional right to due process as American citizens. “[T]he person that decides to shoot a police officer, they should not have those same rights” as citizens who commit crimes, said Adams, who pled not guilty to federal corruption charges in September.
“First part, I'm an American. Americans have certain rights. You know, the Constitution is for Americans. And I'm not a person that snuck into this country. My ancestors have been here for a long time, for a long time. And I don't know if your blouse is made of cotton, but they used to pick some of that.”
Adams’ remarks drew sharp criticism from several pro-immigrant groups and legal experts. “The mayor’s claim has no basis in law,” Elora Mukherjee, the director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Gothamist’s Elizabeth Kim. “The laws set forth in the Constitution generally apply to everyone present in U.S. soil whether or not they are a citizen and regardless of their immigration status,” she said.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat representing parts of Bronx and Queens, echoed Mukherjee in a hallway interview Wednesday with Migrant Insider — “This is a land of due process and America is a country of due process and we afford due process to all human beings who are within our borders,” said AOC, adding: “That is what is part of who we are as a nation, and it’s very critical to what makes us American.”
In 2023, New York was home to about 4.52 million immigrants, making up slightly more than 23% of the state’s population, according to data compiled by the United States Census Bureau. An estimated 670,000 of the state’s migrants are undocumented, according to the Center for Migration Studies of New York.
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